1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to addressing methods and apparatus for displays, and more particularly, multi-line addressing methods and apparatus for bistable displays.
2. Description of Related Art
What distinguishes a bistable display from other type display is that after power is removed, whatever is currently showing remains until the next time the power is restored and the image is refreshed. In short, the image is either bistable or stable in two (or maybe more) states. Since computer displays are often static for long periods of time, such as during a lunch break in office, power of the display could be turned off during those periods for conserving battery life, since the active display is one of the largest consumers of power in any portable computer system.
FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of a conventional addressing method for the bistable display that includes columns (e.g., Columns 1, 2 and 3) and rows (e.g., Rows 1, 2 and 3) arranged in a matrix form. In the conventional addressing method, a signal during a full period is sent to Row 1, and pulses are sent to Columns 1, 2 and 3, respectively, where the respective pulses each may have various widths for displaying different gray levels in Row 1. Next, an another signal during the full period is sent to Row 2, and pulses are sent to Columns 1, 2 and 3, respectively, where the respective pulses each may have various widths for displaying different gray levels in Row 2. Next, a yet another signal during the full period is sent to Row 3, and pulses are sent to Columns 1, 2 and 3, respectively, where the respective pulses each may have various widths for displaying different gray levels in Row 3. In the conventional addressing method, however, a long driving waveform is required to show an image with high contrast and uniform grayscale distribution. Therefore, there is a need for solving this problem, and the present disclosure meets this need.